When it comes to speakers, I have to admit that I am pretty much a novice, lower if there is such thing. I was replacing my car speakers this morning and I removed all of the speakers from the door, dash and the rear deck. The door speakers and the deck speakers were standard 6" x 9", nothing fancy. But the one that I took out of the dash are of an odd size. They are 2.5" in diameter, and are impossible to find. I cant figure out if they are speakers or tweeters. On eBay, some sellers are selling them as Tweeters, but I cant find an aftermarket tweeter that is bigger than 1" in diameter, did come across a full range driver that is 2.5" though. On top of that, this speaker that I took out of my car's dash has a small blue colored capacitor like thing on a terminal too. Can anyone help me out with this? I am attaching the picture of the speaker that I took out of my car.

The 2.5" full range driver that I came across is a Peerless brand. But I am not sure if I can use them in my car. I sent an email to the seller, lets see what the reply back. Here is the links to the two drivers I found.

You can always just get a smaller tweeter and make a mounting plate for it. You will still need to crossover or filter for it unless you are buying a component speaker set that comes with the crossovers. That little blue thing looks to be a filter that prevents frequencies below a certain value from getting to the tweeter. Just make sure whatever you get, it is an impedance match with your receiver to be on the safe side.

Thank you for your response Duc. Do you think I can use those Peerless 830985 from the link above and solder the capacitor from my old speaker? How about if I dont use that capacitor at all? I am using my OEM CD Player and will not be using any additional amp. So these speakers will be powered from the OEM Head unit.

To answer your question requires more knowledge than I have. While you can use it with the capacitor, I wouldn't do it. Why get a full range speaker to use only a portion of it? Aren't you replacing the door speakers? If so, what are you replacing it with? Most aftermarket speakers will have the tweeters built in. No point in having two tweeters per side.

To answer your question in your original post, a picture is worth a thousand words. While speaker can and IS often used in place of driver, the reverse is not true. A speaker can mean an individual driver, but a driver cannot be a complete speaker.

What I would do is get yourself a component set with a mid-bass and tweeter with a separate passive crossover. Put the tweeter in the dash location. Head over to www.diymobileaudio.com . Tons of info over there on car audio. My latest build located HERE if you have the time to check it out. PS car audio these days is pretty technical with the integrated head units. If you don't want to spend the time learning about it you might be better off paying a local shop to do the install.

What I would do is get yourself a component set with a mid-bass and tweeter with a separate passive crossover. Put the tweeter in the dash location. Head over to www.diymobileaudio.com . Tons of info over there on car audio. My latest build located HERE if you have the time to check it out. PS car audio these days is pretty technical with the integrated head units. If you don't want to spend the time learning about it you might be better off paying a local shop to do the install.

+1

AVS is a home audio forum. DIY Mobile Audio is a much better spot for help with car audio

Have you used Crutchfield's website to match what you need? If not, that's where I would start. Since you didn't tell us what car you have, that's not really anything anybody can do here. Nissan from the pics....what model and what year?

Have you used Crutchfield's website to match what you need? If not, that's where I would start. Since you didn't tell us what car you have, that's not really anything anybody can do here. Nissan from the pics....what model and what year?

Yeah, I chatted with Crutchfield, they were useless. They were pushing 5.25 speakers for the door, even though I told them that my car does not take 5.25. It has 6 x 9 all around. But their response was, "we researched it directly on the car." clearly they didnt.
Its a 2010 Nissan Sentra SR with 6 speakers non-Rockford Fosgate system.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duc135

To answer your question requires more knowledge than I have. While you can use it with the capacitor, I wouldn't do it. Why get a full range speaker to use only a portion of it? Aren't you replacing the door speakers? If so, what are you replacing it with? Most aftermarket speakers will have the tweeters built in. No point in having two tweeters per side.

To answer your question in your original post, a picture is worth a thousand words. While speaker can and IS often used in place of driver, the reverse is not true. A speaker can mean an individual driver, but a driver cannot be a complete speaker.

Thank you Duc for the picture. It makes sense now. Yes I replaced the door speakers as well with Pioneer 3-way speakers. So I guess I will just simply put the new speakers in the dash and forget about the capacitor that is installed on the old speaker.

Also, wouldnt 6 x 9 produce better sound than a 5.25? According to a Crutchfield rep, the 6 x 9 will not fit the doors because of the shallow mounting depth. Not true because there is about 6 inches of space in the door panel. My current speakers are about 4 inches in depth and they are still clearing the glass by about 2+ inches.

Anyways, yeah, I agree with you about the smaller speaker issue. I ended up buying the Peerless 2.5" drivers. Lets hope they will fit because the space in the Sentra Dash is extremely limited. I think the ones that i ordered will be a very tight fit.

Crutchfield always includes adapters. Also keep in mind that their average customer is a DIY novice. You can probably fit a 6.5" in there if you make your own plates and are handy with a jigsaw. 6x9's will have more bass but otherwise not sound better. If you're going to make plates, plexi is a good material...its a bit harder to work with (the blade melts it if you cut too fast) but its impervious to the moisture in the door.

Here's a pic of adaptor rings I made to fit MB Quart 160mm drivers in the doors of my old Subaru.

Again do some research. A properly set up 5.25"+tweet component set will blow most 6x9's out of the water in terms of detail and imaging. Just because the factory put speaker size "a" in a hole doesn't mean that's the only or even best option. Car audio has been a love of mine for 27 yrs. I've done installs in every car I've owned in that time. I think I've learned a little along the way. If you don't have the time to do the research then find a reputable local shop that knows what they're doing (this of course can be a challenge these days ) and ask to check out some of their installs. If nothing else you can at least get an idea of what is possible.

Here is my 6.5" Dynaudio mid in my door. I made an aluminum mounting ring for them. The same thing can be and is usually done with MDF or plastic materials. I however am Mr. Overkill. If you check out my build thread you will see what I mean .

I will tell you that if you're trying to improve the sound and you just throw new speakers in the factory holes without knowing what you're trying to accomplish it will most likely sound worse than it did before. The car environment if a very difficult place to get balanced sound due to all the close surface interactions.

dude...makes my plexi rings look like amateur hour! LOL. I had a set of DLS three-ways I had custom panels made for a car but never got around to installing the system. I LOVE three ways, especially Euro brands like Dynaudio and DLS. I used to work on some national champion level IASCA cars back in the 1990's....always fun to see "over the top" installs that are about SQ.

PGT >> I was going to say "sweet job" but then I scrolled down and saw Brian's work. Sorry bro. Brian's 27 years of car audio love triumphed your work.

Brian >> All I can say is "WOW!!" now thats some serious custom speaker installation.

If only I came across all of these pix a few days ahead, I would have PMed both of you for suggestions. I ended up getting 6 x 9s for the rear and the door. The 2.5 are on their way, and should be here by the end of the week. Its my sister's car, and honestly, she doesnt really care. I just wanted to toss the OEM out and put something better in the car. I am "nice" brother, what can I say.

Here are the pictures. They were mostly simple swap. The door ones needed a little work, the OEM adapter needed a little trim, but nothing major.

Will post the pictures of the dashboard speakers once I get them.

PGT, Brian >> Thank you both for posting your pictures and suggestions. BTW Brian, I truly hate the speakers that Honda put in their cars. Their Acura sound system is better, but the Honda, in general, not good at all.

that's OEM in general. Its not just the speakers but the weak output of the stock in-dash units. I put a $1200 double-DIN Kenwood NAV in my Subaru and the stock speakers sounded SO MUCH BETTER, I never got motivated to replace them (and those panels I had made got tossed in the trash...$800 wasted, though I did sell the DLS set of course).